No Walmart Closures in Arizona
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On Friday, Walmart announced a plan to close 269 stores worldwide, including their smaller format stores, Walmart Express. These stores had been in a pilot phase since 2011.

Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart explained, "The large majority of U.S. stores closing are Walmart Express stores. While we have learned a lot from this pilot, including a deeper understanding of the everyday needs of our customers, we have decided not to proceed with this offering. We feel we can better serve our customers by focusing on Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets and by investing in e-commerce and services like Pickup.”

McMillon acknowledges that an estimated 10,000 US associates will be necessarily impacted. He says that they are hoping to move most of those associates into other nearby Walmarts. They will be given 60 days pay, possible severance (if eligible) and employment assistance.“Our goal is to help these associates and we will take all appropriate steps to ensure they are treated well,” McMillon stated.According to McMillon, these steps are being taken as part of smart portfolio management practices.

Nearly all of the stores will close by the end of January. Texas will have the most closures, with 29 affecting their state.